Vigor of Twelve is a play off of the fact that Jesus had twelve disciples. It is a name that helps stress an importance on discipleship. This blog is specifically geared for younger people and mature Christians who don't mind a fresh, bold, and blunt approach to faith. Comments welcome, let's begin the discussion!

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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Acts 9:31

Now
that Saul is on the scene, God has taken care of bringing peace to the
church. The first major wave of
persecution is over, and the church can focus on building itself up. People walked in the fear of the Lord. People walked being comforted by the Holy
Spirit. The church grew.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

I
love the fact that immediately after the story of Saul’s conversion ends and he
flees Jerusalem we get the verse about peace.
It is one of the reasons why I wanted us to read just this single verse
in the Bible today. God knew what he was
doing by making Stephen speak so courageously.
God was using Stephen to evoke an emotional response in Saul and God was
going to use that response for His glory.
Now that Saul has been affected by God, God has all His “pieces” in
play. God is ready to go out and change
the world once His pieces get enough experience. This verse is a great summary of God using turmoil
to get everything in position and then letting the church be at rest while they
experience personal and communal growth.

Have
you ever thought about the church in this context? Have you ever thought about God using
conflict and peace this way?

Second Thought:

The
church is built up. We are told clearly how
the church is built up. It’s really
quite simple. The church is built by
people walking in fear of the Lord and by being comforted by the Holy
Spirit. In other words, the church is
built up by doing the work of the Lord and by opening ourselves up to the
movement of the Holy Spirit. The church
is built up by people actually doing what disciples should be doing. The church is built up when people give up
the pursuit of their own agenda and start following God.

Look
at the churches that you see that are experiencing growth. What’s the difference between those churches
and the rest of the churches that you see?

Third Thought:

We
are told that the church grew. This is
what churches are supposed to do. When
churches don’t grow, it is evidence that something is wrong. Perhaps the people aren’t acting like
disciples. Perhaps the people aren’t
humbling themselves before God. For one
reason or another, churches are supposed to grow and when they don’t there is
evidence of some kind of problem or obstacle.

What
kind of obstacles typically get in the way of church growth? What kind of obstacles often get in the way
of personal growth?